philanthropy

End-to-end is a key concept in technology. Investopedia has the best definition, in my view, on what the term actually means. “End-to-end is a term used to describe products or solutions that cover every stage in a particular process, often without any need for anything to be supplied by a third party. It also embraces a philosophy that eliminates as many middle layers or steps as possible to optimize performance and efficiency in any process.”

Over the past few days, I have been participating in a course on Accelerating Social Transformation (AST2018). The discussions we’ve had with a variety of social sector actors and players such as: Vulcan, Tableau Foundation, Gates Foundation, and Global Good have reinforced my view that end-to-end thinking is a key concept and practice in accelerating social transformation. Those who want to achieve impact, at any scale, must apply this thinking. However, there is one significant distinction, in my view, between this type of thinking in the technology sector and this type of thinking in the social sector.